The fourth morning after the fall of Iron Maw.
For the first time in decades, Cheolchi Station smelled of boiled grain and antiseptic.
Hoooo—whssssh…
Recycled wind moaned down the spine of the platforms.
Si-Hyun stood atop the highest one, coat snapping sharply in the artificial breeze. Below him, children queued for rice with hesitant, hollow hope.
The scarf around his neck lay quiet.
Almost.
Its edges twitched every few seconds—
(restless… hungry again).
He hadn't slept since the wings came out.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw it again:
A hollow sun, cracked open like an egg—
TCHRRK—!!
Twelve wings uncoiling inside it, blotting out everything.
And himself, kneeling at the center, smiling with a mouth that wasn't his.
He was still staring through empty space when the alarms began.
Not the old Iron Teeth klaxons.
New ones.
Clean. Cold. Ring-made.
BWOOOOOOOOOOM— BWOOOOOOM—!!
A voice—female, clipped, amplified—rolled across the entire sector like winter thunder.
"Yoon Si-Hyun.
By order of the Sixth Stellar Lord, you are designated Anomaly Black-01.
Surrender for immediate termination.
Resistance will result in surface-level sterilization."
The voice repeated twice more, perfectly calm.
Every adult froze.
Every child looked up, rice bowls forgotten.
Si-Hyun's eyes narrowed.
Cleaners.
They had come faster than he expected.
He felt them before he saw them.
Five signatures dropping from the mid-strata like falling stars—
FWOOM—FWOOM—FWOOM—!
Burning through poison fog.
Five Stigmas so bright they left scars across the retina.
The scarf rose from his shoulders, bristling.
Si-Hyun didn't turn.
"Take the children below the third platform.
Close every blast door."
The former Grinders hesitated only a heartbeat before scrambling into motion.
Ryeo-Won tried to run to him—
"Oppa!"
—but an older boy grabbed her, hauling her away as she kicked and screamed.
When the last child vanished, Si-Hyun stepped onto the tracks.
THUD.
Five figures landed in perfect formation, cracking concrete like thin ice.
Cleaners.
White ceramic armor. Red visors.
No insignia except a single black ring around the left wrist—
direct service to a Stellar Lord.
The leader removed her helmet.
Short silver hair.
Red eyes like arterial blood.
A vertical scar slicing straight down through her left eye.
On her throat, an open red eye Stigma—
weeping light.
Captain Aria of the Sixth Ring Extermination Corps.
Surface legend called her the Red-Eyed Hunter.
Rumor: she'd personally killed three Hollow Saints and one rogue ring administrator.
She looked at Si-Hyun the way a butcher sizes up meat.
"You grew up ugly," she said.
Si-Hyun tilted his head. "You know me."
"I was there the night your mother escaped the cathedral.
I was twelve.
I held the knife that should have finished you in the womb."
Her tone was conversational. Almost fond.
The other four Cleaners spread out, plasma lances humming—
WHUMMMMM—
Aria lifted one hand.
They froze.
She wanted him alone.
The scarf tightened around his throat, eager.
Si-Hyun exhaled.
Softly.
"Five against one… unfair."
Aria smiled.
"For you."
She moved.
Not a step.
Not a breath.
Just—
VSHHH—!!
One blink she was twenty meters away.
The next, her lance was buried in his chest up to the hilt—
Or should have been.
The scarf caught the blade between two folds of living cloth.
KRNG—!!
Twisted.
The lance snapped like brittle ice.
Aria's red eyes widened—just a fraction.
Si-Hyun's hand closed around her wrist.
He didn't seem to exert force.
The ceramic armor simply imploded, bone following.
"—ghh!" Aria jerked away, drawing her sidearm—
but the scarf swallowed the muzzle before the weapon cleared the holster.
SHLUP—
Gun. Hand. Half her forearm.
Gone into black cloth.
The scarf spat them out a heartbeat later—
brrrRAT—!
Clean white bone clattering onto the ground.
Aria leapt back ten meters, blood spraying.
The other four Cleaners attacked at once.
Plasma lances.
Gravity spikes.
A localized time-dilation field—
everything the rings could lend their elite.
It took eight seconds.
When the dust cleared, four bodies lay in four different shapes that no longer suggested "human."
The scarf was longer now.
Twice as long.
Licking blood from new mouths.
Aria stood alone, one arm gone, teeth gritted against the pain.
Her red eyes never left Si-Hyun.
"You really are the failure," she whispered, almost in awe.
"The priests said the vessel rejected the god.
They were wrong.
You just hadn't decided to wear it yet."
Si-Hyun stepped over a severed helmet.
The scarf rippled, eager to finish her.
He raised a hand.
It froze.
He was staring at Aria's throat.
The open red eye Stigma was… blinking.
The pupil contracted.
Dilated.
Then turned to look directly at him.
A voice came out of it.
Not hers.
A child's voice.
His own, age nine.
The night he hid in a drainage pipe and watched his foster parents die.
"You promised…"
"You promised you'd kill every tooth.
Start with hers."
Aria's remaining hand flew to her throat—
finally afraid.
Something behind Si-Hyun's eyes cracked.
Barely.
He turned away.
"Leave."
Aria stared, stunned.
The scarf lunged—
SHRRRRA—!!
furious.
Si-Hyun caught it with both hands, dragging it back like a rabid beast.
"I said leave."
His voice carried the sound of wings.
Aria stepped backward.
Then again.
Then—
CHAK.
She pressed a beacon.
A column of light swallowed her—
FWASH—!!
Emergency recall.
The scarf thrashed, enraged.
Si-Hyun looked down at it.
For the first time, he spoke directly to the thing.
"Not her.
Not yet."
The scarf stilled.
Slowly curled around his arm like a sulking child.
Went quiet.
Far above, in the Sixth Ring's command center, every screen flickered to black for 0.8 seconds.
When they returned, new text scrolled in blood-red:
// CAPTAIN ARIA – RECOVERY COMPLETE
// LIMBS LOST: 1
// RECOMMENDATION: DO NOT ENGAGE ANOMALY BLACK-01 WITHOUT STELLAR LORD OVERSIGHT
// ADDENDUM FROM LORD SIX: "Interesting."
Deep below, in Cheolchi Station, Si-Hyun walked toward the blast doors.
Children peeked out—wide-eyed, terrified.
He knelt.
Ryeo-Won ran straight into his arms.
She buried her face in the scarf without hesitation.
The living cloth hesitated—
then wrapped around both of them.
Warm. Protective.
Like it remembered what it used to mimic.
Si-Hyun closed his eyes.
In the darkness, the hollow sun waited.
One wing awakened.
Eleven still sleeping.
He had three years.
Maybe less.